Icky Food Facts.

After reading an article regarding our beef supply and what's included in it from the above magazine, I was horrified. I've cut and pasted the guts (no pun intended, gag) of the article below:

"Ten years ago, the rejected fat, sinew, bloody effluvia, and occasional bits of meat cut from carcasses in the slaughterhouse were a low-value waste product called ‘trimmings’ that were sold primarily as pet food. No more. Now, Beef Products Inc. of South Dakota transforms trimmings into something they call ‘boneless lean beef.’ In huge factories, the company liquefies the trimmings and uses a spinning centrifuge to separate the sinews and fats from the meat, leaving a mash that has been described as ‘pink slime,’ which is then frozen into small squares and sold as a low-cost additive to hamburger. (For an effective visual, watch the movie Food, Inc.) Today, BPI produces more than 7 million pounds of the mash per week, making it the world’s largest manufacturer of this frozen product. BPI explains that its product is mixed into most of the ground beef sold in the U.S. – at major fast-food restaurants, supermarkets, and school lunch programs."

"One of the problems BPI encountered when trying to turn trimmings into food was contamination. Trimmings contain dangerous pathogens like E. coli and salmonella. To kill them, BPI sprayed the mix with ammonia. They requested that the ammonia be classified as a ‘processing agent’ and not an ingredient to be listed on labels, and federal officials agreed. The added ammonia had some problems, however. There were complaints about the odor. And more significantly, the ammonia did not always rid the food of pathogens. A recent investigative report in the New York Times (by Michael Moss, published December 30, 2009) discovered that ‘…pathogens were found dozens of times in Beef Products’ meat, challenging claims by the company and the USDA about the effectiveness of the treatment.’ In response to the Times investigation, the USDA has begun including BPI products in routing testing and in product recalls. Previously, the USDA considered BPI products as pathogen-free due to the added ammonia."

Take what you will from that, but it made me throw up a little in my mouth. Yuk.

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Also? Just found out that traditional sweetened coconut that you buy in the store contains an ingredient also in anti-freeze: propylene glycol. Apparently it's a flavor transporter and after a quick Google search I found this guy's opinion on the stuff. May be just an opinion, but last time I checked, coconut didn't need flavor transported. So, I now buy coconut from Bob's Red Mill - unsweetened and un-propylene glycol-ed.